Man Who Lied About His Identity Gets Prison Term

July 9, 1986|By Leslie Kemp of The Sentinel Staff

SANFORD — An Orlando man who lied about his identity when he pleaded guilty to stealing a car has been sentenced to two years in prison.

After leaving prison, Daniel Stuart McNabb, 25, must complete three years of probation for committing perjury in an official proceeding, court records show. McNabb pleaded guilty last week to the charge, which stemmed from a November car theft.

When McNabb was arrested last autumn in a stolen car on Interstate 4 near Longwood, he told police that he was a Canadian citizen named Donald B. Nielson, said Assistant State Attorney Tom Hastings. McNabb again used that name under oath on Nov. 26 when he pleaded guilty to grand theft auto.

Hastings said he and McNabb's public defender believed that his identity was Nielson, a first-time criminal offender who likely would have been fined for the crime.

But while researching ''Nielson's'' background for a presentence investigation report, Steve Beasley of the state probation and parole office, discovered McNabb's true identity through a fingerprint check, Hastings said. Beasley learned that McNabb previously had been sentenced for burglary and grand theft in Osceola County and was wanted for other charges in other Florida counties and by other states.

At his Jan. 28 grand theft sentencing, McNabb admitted his true identity and was sentenced to 30 months in prison, said Hastings, who subsequently filed the perjury charges.

In another recent court case, a Casselberry man who shot his roommate was sentenced to two years in prison to be followed by five years of probation.

James Tilton Johnson Jr., 29, pleaded guilty in May to aggravated battery for the non-fatal shooting of James Sterba, 30, of Casselberry, court records show. Sterba was shot in the arm and abdomen during a Jan. 11 argument with Johnson about unpaid rent, records show.